Category Archives: Opera

Nabucco not as written

Posted on October 23, 2024 by barczablog

I had another chance to see the Canadian Opera Company’s Nabucco last Saturday, this time using my subscription seat. The first time courtesy of the COC comp ticket I watched and listened as a reviewer, while this time it was … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged a cappella, Canadian Opera Company, Giuseppe Verdi, Nabucco, Paolo Carignani, Sandra Horst | 2 Comments

A natural high from Tafelmusik’s Feast of Unknowns

Posted on October 19, 2024 by barczablog

Tafelmusik have outdone themselves this time. This concert titled Feast for the Senses was an exploration of new flavours presented with the assistance of Amandine Beyer, guest director and violin soloist, a genuine feast. Baroque for most people means Bach … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Amandine Beyer, Charlotte Nediger, Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Feast for the Senses, Georg Muffat, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jeanne Lamon Hall, Lucas Harris, Michael Unterman, Michel Richard de Lalande, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra | Leave a comment

Ambitious COC Faust

Posted on October 14, 2024 by barczablog

The Canadian Opera Company have a new production of Charles Gounod’s 1859 opera Faust, telling the tale of the old man who sells his soul to the devil for youth and romance. Gounod’s opera is but one of the many … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Alex Hetherington, Amy Lane, Canadian Opera Company, Charles Gounod, Emma Ryott, Faust, Guanqun Yu, Johannes Debus, Jules Barbier, Korin Thomas-Smith, Kyle Ketelsen, Long Long, Megan Latham, Michel Carré, opera, Szymon Mechlinski, theatre | Leave a comment

Sankofa: The Soldier’s Tale Retold, and Andrew Burashko’s farewell to Art of Time

Posted on October 9, 2024 by barczablog

For the last 25 years, Art of Time Ensemble has been on the cutting edge of the performing arts in Canada, fusing music with theatre, dance, film and literature in unique and unprecedented ways. The list of illustrious artists who … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Interviews, Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Andrew Burashko, Art of Time, Art of Time Ensemble, Diego Matamoros, Joel Ivany, John Gzowski, Kevin Lamotte, Leon Fleisher, librettist, Marek Jablonski, opera, Peggy Baker, Sankofa, Sankofa: The Soldier's Tale Retold, Tawiah M'Carthy, Titilope Sonuga | Leave a comment

COC’s timely Nabucco

Posted on October 6, 2024 by barczablog

I’ve just seen the Canadian Opera Company’s new Nabucco, a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s 1842 work from Lyric Opera of Chicago greeted by a rapturous audience at Four Seasons Centre this afternoon. I never thought that Nabucco could feel so … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera | Tagged Abigaille, Canadian Opera Company, COC, Giuseppe Verdi, Mary Elizabeth Williams, Matthew Cairns, Nabucco, Paolo Carignani, Rihab Chaieb, Roland Wood | Leave a comment

Ariadne on Naxos in 1969 at the Opera School

Posted on September 17, 2024 by barczablog

The title of the opera is Ariadne auf Naxos, done as Ariadne on Naxos because it was being sung in English. That’s how Richard Strauss’s opera was presented back in March 1969 at the Opera School of the University of … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, University life | Tagged Ariadne auf Naxos, Edward Johnson Building, Edward Johnson Building Library, Ernesto Barbini, Hermann Geiger-Torel, Mary Lou Fallis, Opera School, Richard Strauss, Riki Turofsky, Steven Henrikson, University of Toronto | 4 Comments

CICM and OBR present Dvořák’s Jacobin

Posted on September 15, 2024 by barczablog

The Canadian Institute for Czech Music (CICM) and Opera by Request (OBR) collaborated to present Antonín Dvořák’s opera Jacobin in a concert performance with orchestra at Jeanne Lamon Hall Friday September 13th. Produced by Professor John Holland of CICM, conducted … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged Antonin Dvorak, Bill Shookhoff, Canadian Institute for Czech Music, Fidelio, Jacobin, John Holland, Opera by Request, Year of Czech Music | 2 Comments

Thinking about Richard Strauss’s death in 1949

Posted on August 29, 2024 by barczablog

On September 8, 1949 composer and conductor Richard Strauss died after a long productive life. I think of him as a romantic composer carrying on the stylistic traditions of Richard Wagner. In Salome and Elektra he was the modernist pushing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Akhnaten, Ariadne auf Naxos, Bill Shookhoff, Claude Debussy, Franz Liszt, Hart House, Mathieu Marcil, Percy Grainger, Philip Glass, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Salome, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Venus in Furs | Leave a comment

SOLT pedagogy

Posted on July 27, 2024 by barczablog

I attended the La Boheme to open Summer Opera Lyric Theatre’s summer season tonight at the Alumnae Theatre. Guillermo Silva-Marin called it a festival in his pre-show introductory talk. As you can see in the graphic, between now and next … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, University life | Tagged George Frideric Handel, Giacomo Puccini, Guillermo Silva-Marin, Idomeneo, La boheme, Mike Fan | 范祖铭 (they) aka Tanya Smania (she), Ombra mai fu, SOLT, Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Xerxes | 2 Comments

The lessons of James Morris’s Wotan for this Canadian

Posted on July 1, 2024 by barczablog

It’s Canada Day. I live in Toronto and am a subscriber to the Canadian Opera Company. I was remembering examples I’ve seen south of the border at the Metropolitan Opera. Yes they import talent, bringing in Italians to sing Verdi … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Opera | Tagged Canada Day, Canadian Opera Company, David Ferguson, James Morris, John Tomlinson, Perryn Leech, Wotan | 8 Comments